


just stay where you are (it's beautiful)

by dal_segno



Category: NU'EST
Genre: Crack Treated Seriously, Crack and Angst, Crying, Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Insecurities, Light Angst, M/M, Produce 101 - Freeform, Self-Indulgent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-28
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-12 11:00:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29758623
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dal_segno/pseuds/dal_segno
Summary: In which NU'EST are dramatic saps that give each other goodbye hugs and fake cry when one of them goes off to buy groceries, and Aron questions his place in his group.
Relationships: Hwang Minhyun/Aaron Kwak | Aron, Nu'est Ensemble - Relationship
Comments: 4
Kudos: 17





	just stay where you are (it's beautiful)

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! This fic was inspired by this [tweet](https://twitter.com/oecdan/status/1365272401324433413?s=20) by my gf on Twitter! NU'EST are the most dramatic little shits in the K-Pop industry, going as far as to make their entire NU'EST W concept about Minhyun. 
> 
> Also, FUCK MELON FUCK KAKAO M FOR REMOVING NU'EST'S (and lots of other groups') OLD SONGS FROM SPOTIFY. Sigh, I hate this. Title is from LUCY's FLOWERING (which was also removed from Spotify...)

“Hyung,” a deep voice whines. “Don’t leave me, please. I love you— please don’t leave me behind!”

Another voice joins the throng. “Hyung, what will we be without you! Haven’t we proven to you that we love you? Please, think of what will happen to us when we leave!” The owner of the voice clings onto Aron’s loose shirt. Their eyes shine brightly. While this isn’t an unusual sight, Aron notices the extra glimmer in them.

“Hyung,” yet another voice sings. “Will we ever see you again? The journey is long and difficult; you might not return.” A sniffle (or was that a muffled giggle?) sounds in Aron’s ears as muscly arms reach for his short legs. “Oh, think of us! We’ll miss you so. Have you even thought of our hearts when you decided to make the journey?!”

“Please,” a sarcastic and more reluctant voice grumbles in the midst of the poorly masked laughter, “don’t leave me with these dumbasses. Heaven knows I’ll die if left alone with these poor, unfortunate souls.”

Just as Aron sucks in a breath, the four voices shout in a chorus: “Don’t leave us, hyung!”

Minhyun is the first to break the act entirely, falling ass-first (not that he had any) onto the wooden floor while laughing. Then came Dongho whose light and pretty laughter flies through the air as his chest heaves up and down. The youngest, Minki, doesn’t even bother with breaking into laughter; he only rolls his eyes and suppresses a smile. Jonghyun grins innocently, acting like he played no part in this drama.

Aron plucks Jonghyun’s hands off of his shirt and shakes his right leg to rid it of Dongho. When he’s back to two limbs on his torso and two legs, Aron sighs. “Seriously,” he says, “anyone looking at this would think I was going off to war.”

“If you weren’t so annoyingly American, you’d go off pretty soon,” Minki, ever witty Minki, quipped back easily. The oldest of the group made a particularly ugly face at Minki, one that he’d never show in public. It might cause a scandal for all Aron knew.  _ “NU’EST’s Aron Hates His Own Member?! More at 12.” _ Yeah, no. Scoffing at the other, Aron continues.

“Well I’m  _ not _ .” Dongho stifles another wave of laughter, hiding behind Minhyun. “If you guys are done acting, I’ll be on my way. This wouldn’t happen if  _ Minhyun _ —” Aron makes a point to glare (however half-heartedly) at the younger boy. “—remembered what kind of jelly Minki doesn’t like to eat.”

A huff from Minhyun fills Aron’s ears while Minki’s prattling off about Jonghyun being on his phone too much. “Can’t this wait until Saturday?” Aron stares into the depth of Minhyun’s eyes..

“Do you really think you can survive until Saturday with Minki constantly reminding us of all our sins,” he deadpans.

“Point taken.”

At some point in the discussion, Dongho has managed to cling onto Aron again, much to the older’s chagrin. “A trip to the grocery won’t take long, now let— me— go!” Minhyun’s laughs ring in Aron’s ears as the rest of the boys try their best to prevent Aron from leaving. 

Somewhere in the kerfuffle of limbs and giggles Minhyun gives Aron a light kiss on the cheek; a good luck charm of sorts. Rolling his eyes at the gesture, Aron shoves Minhyun away lightly but melts into his arms all the same. Luckily he has the strength to break away from the human ball of arms and legs before Minki could bite him for being off-schedule.

When the lady at the counter eyes Aron’s arms for being very red and bruised, he tiredly tells her that his kids are getting too much for him to handle.

“How many kids do you even have?” the cashier asks in between scanning items.

Aron rolls his eyes. “Triplets, four if you include my spouse.” Neither an exact lie or truth, it falls off Aron’s tongue so easily.

She laughs, though not unkindly. Today seems to be a slow day, so Aron doesn’t hurry to bag his groceries. The chill of the jelly drinks burn against his palm. It’s weird to be talking about the boys like this, but he finds that he doesn’t particularly mind. Though having Minhyun as a husband… Aron shivers at the thought, yet blushes just the same. He shakes his head so quickly that he fears that it would twist off from his neck.

The lady at the register snorts as Aron scrambles to pick up the pieces of his torn dignity. A projectile narrowly misses his face, only to realize that it’s a bundle of lollipops.

“For your kids,” she explains when she sees the odd look on Aron’s face. “I won’t act like I know you or anything, but… I can tell they mean a lot to you. Your family, that is. Stay with them always, will you?”

It takes all of Aron’s strength to not break down in the grocery store right there and then. A tender smile appears before he knows it. He flashes the woman a charismatic smile characteristic of the Aron on stage, not of the Youngmin in glasses and old sweaters.

The promise of never leaving his members seems too heavy to make for now. Aron’s young and the future is so much more than he can ever think of. He can’t bring himself to promise that to himself, much less anyone else. Seconds later, he settles for the next best thing he can offer.

“I’ll do my best.”

And he intends to do so, even when the four boys are testing his patience and feelings for them.

-

“Hyung, please don’t—”

Aron slaps Jonghyun’s hands from touching his shoulders. What was once a gesture of comfort turns into a mocking gesture for Aron. He can’t believe them— why wouldn’t they tell him fucking  _ anything _ about their worries? They all agreed to give themselves to that damn show just like that, without as much as a word to him.

The audacity of it all made Aron fume just as it made tears run down his cheeks.

“And you expect me not to get angry?!” From the corner of his eye, Dongho and Minki flinch in unison at his tone. Aron feels the tiniest part bad but doesn’t have the capacity to think much of it right now. Not when he’s furious and hurt. “We all saw what came out of the show when Nayoung and her girls went. They won’t be nice to us, Jonghyun!”

Minhyun stands from his place on the couch to hold Aron in place. He doesn’t hug the older man or console him. No, that’s not what Aron needs right now; it’d only aggravate him more. The fake-blond intertwines their hands together, but doesn’t look to face the American. It soothes Aron’s nerves enough to stop his body from shaking.

“Of course they won’t, hyung.” Their leader’s voice is softer than Aron’s, yet holds no less emotion. “But we promised that we’d find any way to stay together, right?”

Aron bites his chapped lips. “I don’t get why you didn’t even tell me. None of you. I’m not gonna pretend that I’ve been amazing at being transparent but—”

“Your legs,” Dongho says, and it’s enough to drive the whole dorm into silence. Face burning, Aron sputters to find a way to counter the main vocalist, but knows it’s useless. Like he is. His voice stays stuck in his throat, unable to express how he feels.

Logically, Dongho was right: Aron wouldn’t be able to participate in Produce with his injuries, and that alone would garner much negative attention. But a part of him still felt the need to retaliate, however weakly. Looking at him with pensive eyes, Minhyun makes sure to help Aron down on the couch.

“We know this is a lot,” Minhyun starts, “but this is our last chance. I’m sorry we had to break it to you like this, hyung, but we had to come to a decision quickly.”

Ah, so this is what it’s about. “Are you saying that I’d just get in the way if you told me before?”

Minki huffs tiredly. Even he doesn’t have enough energy to snap back with a witty retort. “That’s not what we said. It’s just that…”

“You have a lot on your plate right now,” the main vocalist fills in for Minki. “And when we tried to bring it up before, something always happened. We couldn’t find a way to tell you that’s any less harsher than what we did now.”

Aron stares at the four boys (men, he has to remind himself because they aren’t so small anymore) with blank eyes. “Still, I don’t think I would’ve had any energy to fight you guys on that anyway. I’m just upset you didn’t tell me until you already signed yourselves up for it.” 

He holds back a sob deep in his throat, though Minhyun already knows what’s happening. To be read like an open book, it’s not something Aron thought would happen to him. As a child and even a teenager, he’s never been the type to wear his heart on his sleeve. Any emotions were hidden under a mask of carefree smiles and acting airheaded. But here in Minhyun’s sturdy arms and their shared dorm, Aron wonders when exactly his personality shifted.

Time flows weirdly when Aron’s with his members. He could spend what seems like hours crying into their arms, and he’d find that only a few minutes have passed. No one has to say anything or expect anything; they just know.

“What do I do now?” Aron decides to ask in a small voice. “I can’t fight with you guys and all I can do is just vote and convince others to vote for you.”

The silence lingers in the wake of Aron’s words. Tendrils of it grip at the corners of Aron’s heart and threaten to take over him entirely. It’s almost suffocating.

“Just stay,” Minhyun says. He takes Aron’s hands into his, and slides them together. “Just stay here. Don’t leave us.”

Jonghyun nods in agreement. “Can you trust us one more time, hyung?”

Minki quietly adds his own statement too, amidst soft sniffles and a trembling voice. “It’s okay if you don’t want to. We’ll respect it.”

And for a moment, Aron wants to say no. To apologize and say he can’t do it anymore. To tell them that he just wants to go home back to the States. They’re asking a lot from him, and who’s to say that it isn’t taking a toll on them as well. He looks at each of their faces with fondness, thinking over his decision. Once a hairline crack in his heart, it now shatters entirely at the realization that he can’t do this to them. He can’t leave them like this. They’ve been through so much, so it wouldn’t hurt to try once more, right?

He grabs the nearest extremity belonging to each member and pulls them close. Two of them yelp, and the other two’s hiccups are clear in Aron’s ears. With as much strength he can manage, Aron opens his mouth to promise to the four boys he’s come to love over the years.

“I trust you all, so I’ll stay. I promise.”

Then, he’s met with wet laughter, half-hearted punches, and sloppy kisses by none other than the ones he loves most. Aron will eventually learn that his decision helped his members in ways he can’t even begin to imagine, and that his choice to stay was the right one all along.

But until that bright future falls upon them, Aron learns that he could never leave NU’EST. And that’s enough for him to know.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Fuck Pledis, Bighit, and Kakao M. 
> 
> Here's my [ twitter account ](https://twitter.com/nuestlovebot)! Maybe drop me a comment or a kudos? Thanks!


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